Of Buttons and Dogs

There was a time that we would make it a point to catch all the Oscar nominated movies and then deliver our verdict on which ones were Oscar-worthy. These days it has been tough even keeping track of which movies have been nominated for the Oscars. Nevertheless, we caught Benjamin Button last week. I must say I was a little disappointed - this movie actually made Forrest Gump seem like a classic movie. I liked the premise of the movie, however, I found Brad Pitt's performance monotonous. Some have described it as being nuanced - personally I preferred the nuanced performance of his ass in Troy.

But back to the premise - in today's world obssessed with looks, we bemoan the appearance of laugh lines and wrinkles- there is a false pursuit of eternal youthfulness. We sometimes wish we had the wisdom in youth to make certain decisions, or the youth to give shape and form to the epiphanies that age provides us. But what this story tells us that no matter where the beginning is at age 70 or age 0, life exorably moves towards the grave and what is vital is that we make the most of our time - as it is given to us. There was one part where the eponymous Button exhorts his daugther to have the courage to try to make something of her life if she had let it slip by her upto that point. For me that was the only point that had any meaning. Otherwise, the movie did very little for me.

I am looking forward to watching Slumdog Millionaire, will try and catch it next weekend when L is back. I am however intrigued by the rather contradictory reactions emanating from India - on the one hand embracing it and revelling in the awards it has received as if a film about India somehow automatically becomes Indian (yes the actors were Indian, but the film was conceptualised, produced and directed by Brits, so its a British film about India) and on the other hand criticising it for portraying India in a negative light. On the latter I have to reserve my comments as I have not watched the movie yet - except to say that I wonder if the people who are upset by this portrayal are the very people who lap up the Aditya Chopras and the Karan Johars portraying NRIs and goras as people devoid of values, uncouth, shamelessly pursuing money, unfilial etc - because really that would be a very accurate portrayal of such un-Indian people and they would really deserve it, no?!!! Well more on it when I have watched the film. But I caught the soundtrack - and the music is rivetting. I found the collaboration with MIA very interesting.